Australia banned semiautomatic assault rifles. Here’s what happened.

Short video from Washington Post. See the results of their ban on assault weapons.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video...ewedvideo_3_na
I B Hankering's Avatar
In 2008, the Australian Institute of Criminology reported a decrease of 9% in homicides and a one-third decrease in armed robbery since the 1990s, but an increase of over 40% in assaults and 20% in sexual assaults.

What to conclude? Strict gun laws in Great Britain and Australia haven't made their people noticeably safer, nor have they prevented massacres. The two major countries held up as models for the U.S. don't provide much evidence that strict gun laws will solve our problems.

(WSJ)
.


Gun control zealots' choice of Britain [in this instance, substitute Australia] for comparison with the United States has been wholly tendentious, not only because it ignored the history of the two countries, but also because it ignored other countries with stronger gun control laws than the United States, such as Russia, Brazil and Mexico. All of these countries have higher murder rates than the United States.

You could compare other sets of countries and get similar results. Gun ownership has been three times as high in Switzerland as in Germany, but the Swiss have had lower murder rates. Other countries with high rates of gun ownership and low murder rates include Israel, New Zealand, and Finland.

Guns are not the problem. People are the problem – including people who are determined to push gun control laws, either in ignorance of the facts or in defiance of the facts.

(The Guardian)

dilbert firestorm's Avatar
Australia gun control was a knee jerk reaction to one murderer by a politician who originally not a gun control proponent. He pushed & twisted a bunch of arms to ban guns. he succeeded. in doing so, he lost the election.

I haven't heard too much about any attempts to repeal the law.
post a way sassypoo guns are here to stay the fucking auzzy can do what they want
dilbert firestorm's Avatar
http://thefederalist.com/2015/06/25/...ntrol-fallacy/

guns were confiscated in a mandatory buy back.
I B Hankering's Avatar
http://thefederalist.com/2015/06/25/...ntrol-fallacy/

guns were confiscated in a mandatory buy back. Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
And the 2009 Holsworthy Barracks terrorist plot was thwarted, and those terrorists had fully automatic weapons despite Australia's laws
dilbert firestorm's Avatar
dilbert firestorm's Avatar
I haven't heard too much about any attempts to repeal the law. Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
http://townhall.com/news/around-the-...riend-n1846643

at least there is someone there who wants to repeal it.
LexusLover's Avatar
Was the purpose of beginning this thread to prove gun control doesn't work?

If so, the purpose of this thread has been satisfied.
SpeedRacerXXX's Avatar
Depends on which source of information you believe as to how effective the gun control
efforts in Australia have been.

Source: http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp

In 1997, Australia implemented a gun buyback program that reduced the stock of firearms by around one-fifth (and nearly halved the number of gun-owning households). Using differences across states, we test[ed] whether the reduction in firearms availability affected homicide and suicide rates. We find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%, with no significant effect on non-firearm death rates. The effect on firearm homicides is of similar magnitude but is less precise [somewhere between 35% and 50%].

Regardless of how much of a cause-and-effect relationship there might be between the NFA and gun deaths in Australia, it's undeniable that the firearms homicide rate in that country has decreased substantially since the implementation of the NFA. It's not the case, however, as suggested by the misleading and long out-of-date online piece quoted in the Example block above (which was written way back in 2001) that the overall crime rate in Australia has shot up since the NFA was introduced. The rates of various types of violent crimes (sexual assault, kidnapping, homicides of all types) have scarcely changed at all, and while the robbery rate rose substantially in the 1998-2001 timeframe, it dropped below its pre-NFA level by 2004 and has continually declined since then:




LexusLover's Avatar
If the stats are accurate on the changing of violent crimes, then gun control does help.
dilbert firestorm's Avatar
If the stats are accurate on the changing of violent crimes, then gun control does help. Originally Posted by LexusLover
this is really dependent on the culture of the country whether gun control works or not.

Japan & Britain are 2 such examples.
LexusLover's Avatar
this is really dependent on the culture of the country whether gun control works or not.

Japan & Britain are 2 such examples. Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
My "point" ... taking up the guns changes the STATS on shootings .....

.. but doesn't seem to modify behavior ..... !!!

Which establishes the baseline complaint of "expanded" gun control .....

.. it's not the guns it's the shooters!!!

According to the stats/graphs violent crimes remained "steady" with little change.
I B Hankering's Avatar
Depends on which source of information you believe as to how effective the gun control
efforts in Australia have been.

Source: http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp

In 1997, Australia implemented a gun buyback program that reduced the stock of firearms by around one-fifth (and nearly halved the number of gun-owning households). Using differences across states, we test[ed] whether the reduction in firearms availability affected homicide and suicide rates.[ We find that the buyback led to a drop in the firearm suicide rates of almost 80%, with no significant effect on non-firearm death rates. The effect on firearm homicides is of similar magnitude but is less precise [somewhere between 35% and 50%].

Regardless of how much of a cause-and-effect relationship there might be between the NFA and gun deaths in Australia, it's undeniable that the firearms homicide rate in that country has decreased substantially since the implementation of the NFA. It's not the case, however, as suggested by the misleading and long out-of-date online piece quoted in the Example block above (which was written way back in 2001) that the overall crime rate in Australia has shot up since the NFA was introduced. The rates of various types of violent crimes (sexual assault, kidnapping, homicides of all types) have scarcely changed at all, and while the robbery rate rose substantially in the 1998-2001 timeframe, it dropped below its pre-NFA level by 2004 and has continually declined since then:

Originally Posted by SpeedRacerXXX
That the graph does not parallel gun-grabber assumptions and predictions about gun availability and the violent crime rate further serves to undermine the anti-gun lobby argument, speedy. The graph actually shows an increase in the violent crime rate in the decade after the gun ban, and not the decrease the gun lobby promised.



  • The number of murder victims fluctuated slightly from 1993 to 2007, whereas manslaughter remained relatively stable.
  • The number of murder victims peaked in 1999, at 344; the number of manslaughter victims peaked in 2002, at 48.
  • The 253 murder and 29 manslaughter victims recorded in 2007 were the lowest annual number yet recorded. (Australian Institute of Criminology)
And making assumptions without noting that there was already a decline in place before the gun ban is also misrepresenting the facts.


  • The percentage of homicides committed with a firearm continued a declining trend which began in 1969. In 2003, fewer than 16% of homicides involved firearms. The figure was similar in 2002 and 2001, down from a high of 44% in 1968. (Australian Institute of Criminology)


this is really dependent on the culture of the country whether gun control works or not.

Japan & Britain are 2 such examples. Originally Posted by dilbert firestorm
The incidents of knife assaults increased after Britain's ban on handguns went into effect. There is a movement afoot to ban knives with sharp points in Britain. Here are last years stats as reported in The Telegraph showing an increase in violent crime and sexual assaults; plus, assaults with knives and "banned" guns.
You have to admit there have been no mass shootings since they invoked the gun law and that is quite an accomplishment. And, the homicide and suicide rate has definitely gone down.